The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of July 8, 2026

Horizontally oriented watercolor and pastel on cream paper depicts a highly abstract scene of layered forms. To the left, a thick magenta stroke points upward, textured with black scribbles. Orange and peach zigzag bands span the center, meeting a large, dark gray circle on the right. Encased in concentric black rings and overlapped by jagged magenta shapes, this focal point radiates four red wavy lines extending toward the right edge.

Bird of Paradise

1971

Vivian E. Browne

(American, 1929–1993)
America
watercolor and pastel on paper
Sheet: 45.1 x 61 cm (17 3/4 x 24 in.)
Alma Kroeger Fund 2024.3
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Vivian Browne described her Africa Series—to which this work belongs—as conveying “such an emotional uplift” during her travels around the continent.

Description

Vivian Browne was active in the feminist art scene of New York during the 1960s and 70s, especially groups that supported Black women artists. She abandoned figurative painting in favor of abstraction during a trip to Africa in 1971. Browne accompanied historian and artist Floyd Coleman to Nigeria, Ghana, and Benin, among other locales, studying at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria for six weeks. These travels inspired her best-known body of work, to which this drawing belongs.
  • ?–2024
    (Ryan/Lee Gallery, New York, NY), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    February 26, 2024–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Bird of Paradise|url=false|author=Vivian E. Browne|year=1971|access-date=08 July 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2024.3